Five deaths outside since early April have led to calls for year-round shelter

Where: 1300 block of the Pearl Street Mall, in front of the old Boulder County Courthouse

Recent Boulder homeless deaths

Janice 'CJ' Adams: Adams, 53, was discovered April 4 in the area of the Boulder Creek Path underpass near the intersection of Arapahoe Avenue and Broadway. She died of alcohol poisoning.

Ralph Devore: Devore, 51, was found April 5 just east of the intersection of College Avenue and Broadway on the University of Colorado campus. He died of blunt-force injuries, but the manner of death is undetermined.

Thomas Cornell: The body of Cornell, 32, formerly of Colorado Springs, was found in a drainage ditch behind the Boulder Target store at 2800 Pearl St. on April 15. The cause and manner of his death are undetermined.

Kathryn J. Fishman: Fishman, 59, died during the night of May 10 sleeping alongside a building at Scott Carpenter Park. She died of multiple drug intoxication.

Daniel Kitlitz: The body of Kitlitz, 27, was found June 14 in an alley off the Pearl Street Mall. His death is under investigation.

Boulder homeless advocates are planning a summer memorial for the five homeless people who have died outside since April.

The annual homeless memorial is typically held in late December at the Glen Huntington Bandshell in Central Park.

This memorial will be held at 2 p.m. Aug. 16 in front of the old Boulder County Courthouse on the Pearl Street Mall.

Joy Redstone, a counselor and activist on homeless issues, said she wanted a more visible location for this memorial as advocates and homeless people call for year-round shelter in Boulder. She also didn't want to hold the memorial in Central Park in the middle of the Saturday Farmers' Market.

"I'm very concerned about the amount of homeless people who have died in Boulder this spring and summer, and the lack of access to shelter is, I believe, a contributing factor," Redstone said. "I want to raise more awareness in the community about the hardships homeless people are facing."

None of the homeless people who died outside this spring died directly from exposure, but Redstone said being without shelter contributes to unnecessary deaths.

"When people are experiencing health problems and they are in a shelter, that is witnessed," she said. "When someone has a seizure or is in withdrawal or falls down, someone can get medical care for them. When people are sleeping outside in the summer, they are hidden and isolated from other people."

"Camping" is defined in Boulder as sleeping outside with any shelter, including a blanket, and people found camping can face fines and jail time.

Living outside also exacerbates other health problems, Redstone said.

Boulder is in the midst of an ongoing debate about how to deal with the city's homeless population.

The city has stepped up enforcement in the municipal campus and Central Park in response to complaints, and the City Council voted to restore the possibility of jail time for even first-time municipal offenses.

Homeless advocates have criticized these efforts as "criminalizing homelessness" and said they lead to an increase in mistreatment of homeless people.

The City Council backed off a proposal to expand panhandling restrictions in Boulder.

Redstone said the memorial service will follow a similar format to the winter memorial, with personal remembrances of those who passed and references to Boulder's annual proclamation expressing commitment "to promoting compassion and concern for all brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor and homeless."

City Councilwoman Lisa Morzel, who has spoken at several past homeless memorials, said she hopes the commemoration on the Pearl Street Mall retains the intimate feeling of the winter memorial. But she said it would be good for the broader community to think seriously about what it can do to reduce homeless deaths.

"I certainly hope we, as a community, can come together and look at the conditions in which people are dying and what we, as a community, can do to mitigate those," Morzel said. "And I hope we can be effective in that conversation in helping people get off the streets and change some things so we don't have to have ceremonies twice a year."

Pastor Daniel Rutty speaks to people who gathered in the Glen Huntington Bandshell in Boulder's Central Park on Dec. 21 to honor the homeless who died in the city last year. In August, homeless advocates will hold a mid-year memorial because so many homeless men and women already have died this year. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

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